Isle of Arran, from Mainland Craigie Aitchison

Craigie Aitchison Craigie Aitchison was born in Edinburgh in 1926. He started training “I wished to be part of 'Inspired' after being told the reasons for the to become a lawyer but abandoned this career and entered the Slade exhibition. I loved being in Arran - it was the happiest time of my School of Art in 1952. Aitchison’s first one man show was in 1959. childhood and I still have an affinity with the island” . Craigie Aitchison Since then he has exhibited widely in the United Kingdom, and overseas in locations as diverse as Tokyo (1969), Delhi (1984) and Jerusalem (1992). In 1953, during his second year at the Slade, he won the prize for the best still life and two years later he was awarded the British Council Italian Government Scholarship to Rome. In the intervening years he has received many awards, including the Jerwood Prize in 1994. A solo exhibition of his work was held at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow in 1996. In 1998 he completed a commission for Liverpool Cathedral. Since 2000, Craigie has had several solo shows, including 3 in one year in 2008, one of which was in Tokyo, in the Paul Smith ‘Space’ Gallery. Craigie Aitchison was elected on to the RA in 1988 and was made a CBE in 1999. He lives and works in London. Isle of Arran, from Mainland 2008 Oil on canvas 30.5 x 25.4 cm Fiona Banner Fiona Banner was born in 1966, Merseyside, England. Much of her “The words in this work are mapping out the space of the page, work explores the problems and possibilities of written language. Her in terms of the body, or in terms emotional space - using known early work took the form of ‘wordscapes’ or ‘still films’. However graphic terms.” Fiona Banner Banner’s current work encompasses sculpture, drawing and installation but text is still at the heart of her practice. She recently turned her attention to the idea of the classic, art-historical nude, observing a life model and transcribing the pose and form in a similar vein to her earlier transcription of films. Often using parts of military aircraft as the support for these descriptions, Banner juxtaposes the brutal and the sensual, performing an almost complete cycle of intimacy and alienation.She is represented in many important collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum; Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis; The Arts Council of England and the Tate Gallery, London. She was short-listed for the Turner Prize 2003. She lives and works in London. www.fionabanner.com Anatomy of a Book 2009 erased book, lettraset 23x17x3cm (unframed) David Begbie David Begbie was born in Edinburgh in 1955. He is world renowned for his innovative steelmesh sculpture which is exhibited, collected and imitated globally. He discovered the properties of his medium as a student at Winchester in 1977 and developed the idea as a post graduate at the Slade School of Sculpture, University College London. Begbie continues to be both inspired and challenged by the unlimited and inherent possibilities of his medium, and has literally invented and developed a unique art form and visual language. Using strategic lighting to create supremely optical compositions of line and form, each transparent sculpture has a greater palpable presence than the space which it occupies. Begbie offers movement whenever there is any shift of light so much so that these pieces can sometimes have an interactive element. He sets up a paradox by creating from this cold industrial material, delicate, sensual and powerful work that is completely contemporary, but which ultimately is timeless. He lives and works in London. The inspiration for many poems, including “The Lass of Cessnock Banks” was Alison Begbie, the woman who Burns’s sister Isabella claimed was the love of his life. Very little in fact is known about Alison, save that Burns met her in the 1780’s near Lochlie in Ayrshire, and that he proposed marriage to her and was rejected. It is not entirely certain that Alison Begbie and David Begbie are directly related, however it is likely that a family connection does exist. "I am proud to be Scottish, and Robert Burns is certainly Scotland’s most famous poet. This combined with his relationship with Alison Begbie, his first real love and the inspiration for many of his works has, over two centuries later, inspired me to create this portrait.” David Begbie . www.davidbegbie.com Burns 2009 Steel Panel 60 cm x 130 cm x 18 cm (including plinth) John Bellany Born at Port Seton in 1942 into a family of fishermen and boat builders and steeped in Calvinism as a child, John Bellany’s art is profoundly religious in its intimation of morality and recognition of evil. He is one of the most influential Scottish painters since the war, and has re- established a native, figurative art at a time when Modernism and abstraction seemed invincible. Throughout his career he has painted elemental allegories encompassing the complexities of the human condition and anchored in the rich poetry of the sea; but after moving to London in 1965 to study at the Royal College of Art, his vision and iconography became broader. His towering example has inspired a new pride in Scottish artists; a fact duly recognised when he was awarded the CBE. His paintings are in the collections of major museums and art galleries throughout the world, including the National Galleries of Scotland, The Tate Gallery, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Tam O Shanter Holy Willie’s Prayer 2009 2009 Ink Drawing Oil on Canvas 38x56cm 152.5x173cm Philip Braham Philip Braham first came to the public attention in 1986 with the groundbreaking exhibition “The Vigorous Imagination” at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It marked the new wave of figurative painting in Scotland that resonated with the prevailing spirit of Neo- expressionism in European art of the 80’s. He has exhibited widely since, notably in “Die Kraft Der Bilder” at the Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, in 1996, and in “New European Artists” at Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, in 2001. A major solo exhibition was held at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh in 2000, and recent solo shows include The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, and Osborne Samuel, London. He lives and works in Edinburgh. "Robert Burns was a great humanist who united people of all class and creed, and recognised with awe and wonder that the fragile beauty of nature was everywhere to be seen. In the intimate he saw the profound, but he wrote with humility and humour, and sometimes with heart-aching regret, from the position of being one of us. I have painted my imaginary image of "The Churchyard" to set the scene for the strange vision yet to unfold in the addled mind of Tam O'Shanter. It is a haunting, hallucinogenic image that is not specifically based on the Alloway churchyard, but I could imagine it's a place where Tam might meet some witches when he's had a few whiskies. It is a privilege to be invited to contribute to the "Inspired" exhibition in honour of our greatest poet." Phil Braham www.philipbraham.com The Churchyard 2009 Oil on Linen 168 x 122 cm Roderick Buchanan Roderick Buchanan was born in 1965. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (2008), La Criée - Centre d'Art Contemporain, Rennes (2007), GoMA - Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2007) and Camden Arts Centre, London (2005). His work has been shown in numerous museum exhibitions and international events including the 6th Taipei Biennial (2008), the XI Triennale-India, New Delhi (2005) as well as the 48th and 49th edition of the Venice Biennale (1999 and 2001). He has received an award from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, London (2004) and won the inaugural Beck’s Futures prize at the ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art, London (1999). He lives and works in Glasgow. Number Crunching The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 Peter Berresford Ellis and Seumas Mac a’ Ghobhainn Pluto Press 1989 2007 Mixed Media. Mounted photograph plus signed document. 45x63x4cm John Byrne John Byrne was born in Paisley in 1940. An award winning graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, Byrne subsequently took a job in a local carpet factory. However while there he continued to paint, with his visual art career taking off fairly soon afterwards, when his work reached a wide audience in the form of record covers for the Beatles, Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly. Byrne is also a successful playwright, having written, designed and directed stage and screen productions, including "Tutti Frutti" and "The Slab Boys", clearly inspired by his experience working in a carpet factory. A Man’s a Man 2009 Watercolour and ink on gesso 35.5x30.5cm Painting commissioned by The Famous Grouse John Cake and Darren Neave aka The Little Artists Darren Neave and John Cake are The Little Artists. They have worked “The biggest thing about Rabbie Burns that has really intrigued us together since graduating from Leeds University in 1995 and currently is how he has been embraced within Modern Scotland and the live and work in London. They have exhibited internationally and are world - He has a national day (with celebration, singing and most well known for their scale-reproductions and photographs of dancing), a huge legacy, countless websites, his books, poems etc iconic modern art and artists in Lego. Elsewhere, they have produced are still published and updated and translated - you can even buy huge Scalextric installational drawings, filling gallery floors with metres a plate with him on! and metres of track animated by model minis.

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